The Samurai’s Heart

Himeji, 1587. After the death of her older sister, Sen returns to her father’s household knowing that the future of its celebrated swordmaking tradition now depends on her. She must marry a man willing to enter the family and continue the craft. Her parents favour Nobuhiro, her father’s skilled apprentice and the estranged third son of a high-ranking samurai, but Sen refuses to accept a husband who does not share her Christian faith at a time when the religion faces official restriction and local hostility.

Sen’s search among Himeji’s concealed Christian community attracts the attention of the anti-Christian group responsible for her sister’s death. Nobuhiro is compelled to protect her even though he considers her religious commitment dangerously reckless. As affection grows between them, Sen must choose how far she will defy her family to preserve her conscience, while Nobuhiro faces a conflict between loyalty to the swordsmith household, reconciliation with his samurai father and a marriage that could close the path back to his birth family.